The video shows three men and three women (who are not wearing the veil) dancing to Happy in various locations around Tehran

“Following a series of intelligence and police operations and after coordinating with the judiciary, all the suspects were identified and arrested,” he said, adding they had “confessed to their criminal acts.”

A presenter addresses a policeman to ask: “Officer please give some advice to those who take advantage of our young people.”

He replies: “Here’s my advice to them. They should be absolutely certain that we were able to discover and identify these individuals in a very short time. We will certainly find out about who they are and confront them."

All six have been arrested, according to media reports

Since the arrests the original video has been taken down after clocking up around 40,000 views but protesters have uploaded copies with the hashtag #FreeHappyIranians.

Even singer Pharrell Williams tweeted his dismay: “It’s beyond sad these kids were arrested for trying to spread happiness.”